As outlined in USA Today last
weekend, many cities across the country are seeing an increase in
homicides. The article points out cities like Milwaukee, Baltimore, New Orleans
and St. Louis have seen their murder rates increase by more than a third
compared to the same date last year.
We have worked with the
community to enact many measures to prevent that from happening in Kansas City.
And it’s paying off. As of this writing, Kansas City, Missouri, has experienced
38 homicides in 2015, which is one more than at this time last year. But for many
years prior to that, we averaged more than 50 homicides at this point in the
year. With 80 homicides recorded in Kansas City last year (a few more were
ruled as such by the Medical Examiner since I last posted about 2014 homicide
rates), we experienced the city’s lowest homicide rate since 1972. That was not
a fluke. The trend is continuing into this year, and I expect we will continue
to see fewer and fewer murders.
Of course just one
homicide is one too many, so we are working to prevent every one we can and
hold accountable the perpetrators in those we can’t.
One of my strategic
objectives when I became Chief of Police was to reduce homicides in our city. We
have undertaken many efforts since then, and we saw them start to come to
fruition last year. I outlined many of those in this previous
post, including everything from the Kansas City No Violence Alliance to the
Police Athletic League.
I also think one of the
biggest differences between other cities experiencing increased homicides and
our city is the cooperation between residents and police. More community
members than ever before are coming forward to share information with us, let
us know about problems in their area and work with us on a day-to-day basis to
keep their neighborhoods safe. My first priority action under my strategic
objective to reduce homicides is to, “Remove barriers that currently exist
between the police department and the community in order to build trust and
establish productive, open lines of communication.” That is happening.
The members of the Kansas
City Missouri Police Department have put forth tremendous effort to gain the
trust of the other members of the community they serve. I am proud of what they
have done and will continue to do. A city whose residents work with and trust
law enforcement is a safer city. With this partnership, I think we will avoid
the spikes in murders occurring in other places across the country.
Because of the work done by our department members, law
enforcement partners, community leaders and residents on building relationships
and working as a community to solve our problems, the Kansas City metro area
also has not had to deal with the continual negative media attention other
cities have had to wade through. I appreciate our local media reporting events responsibly. This has been a benefit to our community, so we can focus our
efforts toward continuing to build a better tomorrow.
Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.